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“The eShop Has Turned Things Around for Nintendo”
At least that’s what one developer told Destructoid this week: The eShop, I feel, has really turned things around for Nintendo on the digital side because the storefront is heavily feature-driven. Any publisher can still produce whatever it wants, similar to iOS in both regards. However, given the feature-oriented nature, the eShop is quasi-curated without […]
Infendo·February 7, 2012
At least that’s what one developer told Destructoid this week:
The eShop, I feel, has really turned things around for Nintendo on the digital side because the storefront is heavily feature-driven. Any publisher can still produce whatever it wants, similar to iOS in both regards. However, given the feature-oriented nature, the eShop is quasi-curated without being some lame PR line…
What do you think: Has the eShop exceeding your expectations of Nintendo’s foray into digital games?
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Should be "Has the eShop exceeded"
And yes it has, the Wii Shop Channel was rather clunky, but the eShop is a streamlined visually appealing service that's fun to use, and I think developers are starting to take notice of this.
Fantastic service. Only gets me more excited for the WiiU's store.
I love it, it's smooth, and easy to see new content. Went to buy Sakura Samurai a few days back, and it was so easy. Started out marked as "new", and a few clicks later, twas done.
Not to mention the demo service, hallelujah!
The eShop has become amazing in the last few months, particularly in the current streak of high quality 3DS original games: Suddenly Nintendo has become the Pixar of awesome downloads with one high quality product after another! I say this in all seriousness: Pushmo, Freakyforms and Sakura Samurai are three of my favorite games from the past couple of years on any platform!
Plus, the store's interface and download animation are cute as all heck, and I love the new Nintendo Show.
The eShop is still pretty lame. It's gotta load and then if you're just browsing there's like 20 categories and you have to think "would the game I want be a Staff Pick or in Family Fun or in Games for under $5 or in Featured Puzzles… etc.". If there was a game you saw or heard of but can't remember the name then it's an enormous pain to try and find it.
It feels more like how a pawn shop would be organized than a Wal-Mart. Nintendo has this bucket full of games, far fewer than other e-stores, so they sit there and organize them in a plethora of arbitrary ways just to make it look like they have some content.
Apple is still winning in the e-store area. Want to see what the top sellers are in a nice numbered list? It's there. Want to browse apps in a certain rigidly defined category? Sure, you can even organize the results by release date if you want. For just pure browsing and discovery, Apple, as well as most other online systems, have Nintendo very soundly beat and Nintendo doesn't seem interested in catching up.
The eShop may never actually tell you when there are updates for your games or be able to suggest things you might like based on your purchase and/or browsing history. These are not useless frills, but key components to successfully deployed online shops and if Nintendo's not interested in trying to improve in this way, then I have to say that I'm not terribly interested in using their service unless necessary.
No one just sits and browses through the eShop looking for cool games because neither the interface nor the content lend themselves to that. I hope one day Nintendo will realize that the eShop has to be a destination for games instead of just a utilitarian tool for their distribution, but they probably won't, so there's nothing a customer can do but vote with their wallets until they wake up.
The eShop is fine. I just want infendo radio back, please),:
@MrMiyamoto:
You make good points about the organization: that needs work. Still, I prefer Nintendo's charming boutique-like feel to wading through thousands of App Store garbage titles, freemium shell games and low-quality clones and truly stupid, offensive junk to get to the good stuff.
@MrMiyamoto:
I agree with you whole-heartedly!!
@Richard:
Giving the eShop a better UI doesn't magically mean that you will have to "[wade] through thousands of App Store garbage titles, freemium shell games and low-quality clones and truly stupid, offensive junk to get to the good stuff." The same content would be there, just easier to sort and look through. Heck, why not simply give us, the user, an option in the eShop config to either browse by "boutique" (like it currently is) or just basic listings (which can be subdivided by NORMAL groups/genres or even price, alphabetical, or even release date).
To date, I have "browsed" the eShop exactly three times: once shortly after the purchase of my 3DS where I bought the one (and probably only) non-free download I will ever get from the eShop, once to download the Resident Evil: Revelations demo, and once just to browse. The browsing experience was so painful/awful that I will probably never go back to the eShop without predetermined knowledge of exactly what I will be purchasing.
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